Bicycle helmets will save your melon

Are helmets a teenage joy-hampering device, or a watchdog for your melon so your mother doesn’t have to worry about you?

It’s smart to wear one when you’re flying down Schweitzer on a bike, but do you honestly need it if you’re just going down to Super 1? I used to say that all the time, but a little bit of digging and I now think otherwise.

Helmets.org contained some very startling information. Here is the cyclist death toll with versus without a helmet for various years: 1994 had 19 deaths with a helmet and 776 without, 1999 had 42 helmet and 698 non-helmet deaths, and the year 2007 had 50 helmet and 646 non-helmet deaths.

Perceive a trend? The data I’ve collected shows that by wearing a helmet, you have up to a 12 percent chance of a crash turning fatal, whereas without a helmet your average chance of not surviving is 91.4 percent.

If numbers don’t convince you, I interviewed Rich Lopez, a bike-riding enthusiast. He says he always wore a helmet and was especially grateful that his skid lid was with him on a particular crash. Approximately 20 years old, Rich was rehearsing a regular jump when on take-off, his front wheel skidded out from under him. In mid-air, gravity got the best of him, slamming first his shoulder, then his head onto the earth. He recalls that that was one of the hardest hits he has ever sustained. That day he broke his collarbone, but his head, that received most of the impact, turned out OK. Tuck a flower in your helmet, not your coffin

JAMES REINHARDT

Sandpoint